Warning, bias alert. I'm currently saving for a house, so take this with a grain of salt.
I can't tell if I'm opposed to this, and I'll tell you why. Right now in Ontario, housing prices are absolutely insane. Buying a decent house feels more and more out of reach as the average price of detached homes over 100 km / 70 miles from Toronto are approaching $1 million.
One of the many reasons that prices continue to skyrocket is that investors are renovating and flipping homes or buying and holding homes as investment properties. These people have substantial networth already and obviously have primary residences, but the sum of their efforts are pricing out lower and middle class families. Keep in mind as well that there are significantly fewer houses than there are prospective buying families, so as soon as you add in rich investors buying multiple houses to flip of lease or rent or turn into an AirBnB, the demand so outpaces the supply that prices go up without a ceiling.
A move like what the Dutch government proposes here may prevent the obscene house-hoarding investment culture that we have in Ontario. I can't say for sure, though.
But what the Dutch are proposing sounds like race based Price controls.
Price controls never work.
The solution to your problem is the famous supply and demand equation. Ontario has a lot of rules to prevent new buildings being built. This reduces the supply.
Houston is famous for having very few restrictions on new houses being built. And always avoided housing bubbles more than many other areas.
If it's race-based, I wholeheartedly agree. Of course, assessing based on income or socioeconimic status could just become a proxy for race.
To your point on supply and demand, I'd tend to agree as well except that we're facing extremely high immigration rates. Also, keep in mind that these policies actually favour developers. They now get to build fewer homes but make as much money as they otherwise would because the prices have been ballooning that quickly (prices have effectively doubled in five years).
It looks like the most practical approach now is to just leave, but people fleeing doesn't improve the situation.
Warning, bias alert. I'm currently saving for a house, so take this with a grain of salt.
I can't tell if I'm opposed to this, and I'll tell you why. Right now in Ontario, housing prices are absolutely insane. Buying a decent house feels more and more out of reach as the average price of detached homes over 100 km / 70 miles from Toronto are approaching $1 million.
One of the many reasons that prices continue to skyrocket is that investors are renovating and flipping homes or buying and holding homes as investment properties. These people have substantial networth already and obviously have primary residences, but the sum of their efforts are pricing out lower and middle class families. Keep in mind as well that there are significantly fewer houses than there are prospective buying families, so as soon as you add in rich investors buying multiple houses to flip of lease or rent or turn into an AirBnB, the demand so outpaces the supply that prices go up without a ceiling.
A move like what the Dutch government proposes here may prevent the obscene house-hoarding investment culture that we have in Ontario. I can't say for sure, though.
I'm sympathetic to your situation.
But what the Dutch are proposing sounds like race based Price controls.
Price controls never work.
The solution to your problem is the famous supply and demand equation. Ontario has a lot of rules to prevent new buildings being built. This reduces the supply.
Houston is famous for having very few restrictions on new houses being built. And always avoided housing bubbles more than many other areas.
If it's race-based, I wholeheartedly agree. Of course, assessing based on income or socioeconimic status could just become a proxy for race.
To your point on supply and demand, I'd tend to agree as well except that we're facing extremely high immigration rates. Also, keep in mind that these policies actually favour developers. They now get to build fewer homes but make as much money as they otherwise would because the prices have been ballooning that quickly (prices have effectively doubled in five years).
It looks like the most practical approach now is to just leave, but people fleeing doesn't improve the situation.